Page 2551 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 6 August 2013
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In Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, the not-for-profit organisation United Way Australia is acting as a social change agent to bring community, government and corporate organisations together to build on their individual capacities for a greater collective impact. United Way Australia builds partnerships between three sectors by tapping into volunteers’ personal and professional skills.
In South Australia, the Office for Volunteers coordinates the Premier’s business awards. Not-for-profit organisations nominate business leaders in corporate responsibility for the Premier’s business award for corporate social responsibility. In 2013, this was won by a legal firm; in 2012, by a credit union. Also in South Australia, the Office for Volunteers’ community voices program partners community groups with students from Flinders University to produce short documentaries or television commercials for volunteer recruitment and community organisations. The films can then be screened on television, online, used for public presentations and in other creative ways to help an organisation achieve its goals.
As these examples demonstrate, there is significant opportunity for innovation in how each sector can bring their skills and resources together for community benefit. The cultural and community environment in Canberra is one of huge complexity and change. There is not a single model that works for everyone. And the community sector is changing, not least with the advent of DisabilityCare which will put purchasing power in the hands of clients rather than service providers. DisabilityCare will generate new models and new ways of delivering important social services. And there are other new models emerging, including social enterprises and microfinance. Social enterprises are enterprises that trade for profit to improve social outcomes.
Disability ACT is supporting three demonstrational social enterprises, MULCH, the Branch Out Cafe and Paperworks. MULCH, run by Marymead, is a horticultural enterprise to provide skills development and social engagements to young adults with a disability when they leave school. The Branch Out Cafe, run by Carers ACT, provides an opportunity for up to six young adult school leavers with a disability to gain confidence and learn skills with a view to gaining employment in hospitality. Paperworks is in its third year, providing opportunities for people with a disability to work in a socially inclusive environment in the production of handmade paper products for sale.
Microcredit is another funding model used here in the ACT, and the ACT women’s microcredit program, brilliant ideas, is administered by the Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre and provides ACT women on low incomes with access to interest-free loans of up to $3,000 to help them establish or further develop a business. The ACT government funded the initial implementation of the program. As at 30 June this year, 39 loans had been approved since it began.
The 2013-14 budget provides an additional $420,000 over four years for microcredit for disadvantaged Canberrans to establish or expand a small business activity. And the ACT government is seeking to expand the program to include migrants, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, young people, women and lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex people.
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